Panasonic GF1 Software - crappy customer care

I recently purchased a second hand GF1 but unfortunately it did not come with the bundled software "PHOTOfunSTUDIO".

So I tried the Panasonic website for their download section. They only had "Update" software, but this requires PHOTOfunSTUDIO to already be installed.

So I emailed the customer care to ask for either a disc to be sent to me, or for a internet link that I could download it from ..... then I got the undernoted email stating that due to licensing issues they can't give it to me, but I can buy it from them!

Now, I've had a few camera's in my time, and the software has always been available for free download (mostly Canon), so it's really p!$$ed me off that Panasonic are asking me to pay for this to the extent I'm considering selling the camera again and never buying panny again!

Does anybody know how I can get a copy of PHOTOfunSTUDIO, or if there is an good quality alternative software programme I can download/use?

[I use Photoshop for pictures, but for the videos I've had to download "VLC Media Player" which plays them, but it's not very user friendly for converting or burning].

<extract of email from Panasonic Customer Care>

In response, regrettably, I would advise that due to licensing, the software is not available to download. I would confirm however that accessories such as replacement CD-ROMs are generally available for purchase through our Customer Communications Centre on 0844 844 3856 or on-line through our website Welcome to Panasonic UK & Ireland.

We trust that the above information will be of assistance to you. However, of course, if you should have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0844 844 3852 or email us using the following email address:

Now, I've had a few camera's in my time, and the software has always been available for free download (mostly Canon), so it's really p!$$ed me off that Panasonic are asking me to pay for this to the extent I'm considering selling the camera again and never buying panny again!

Click to expand...

Panasonic purchases licenses from this company, and provides it with their cameras. They do not own the software and therefore cannot freely re-issue it at whim. The license holder in your case is the original purchaser, and therefore it's hardly Panasonic's fault that he/she didn't provide the disc when you bought your camera second hand.

There is also plenty of freely available, image editing software around, like Google Picasa and GIMP, and lots of cheap paid software like Apple Aperture ($99) and Adobe Lightroom ($199).

I don't think Faststone will open .m2ts video files or variations thereof. Do an Internet search there are many low cost programs such as Panasonic AVCHD Editor and free programs such as Any Video Converter.

Well.. if it's any consolation to you, the supplied software sucks. The only useful feature is maybe the video downloading (and burning?).
If you are willing to spend a couple hundred bucks more, I recommend you to get LR if not, there are a lot of free software that can view the jpgs, or even raw files
For video, I use HandBrake to convert them to mp4. Not sure how I can burn them to play on DVD players, but I haven't got the need to so far.

Thanks for the licensing explanation Sherlock. I did realise it's wasn't all Panasonic's fault, and part of it was just ranting, so apologies, but even if it's not Panny's software you'd think they work out a way to deal with situations like mine, which surely can't be unique.

As for all your alternative suggestions, thank you very much, loving this forum almost as much as my new camera!

I recently purchased a second hand GF1 but unfortunately it did not come with the bundled software "PHOTOfunSTUDIO".

Click to expand...

Your problem is not with Panasonic but the person you bought the GF! from. Panasonic supplies one copy of the software with the camera and the previous owner has the copy Ask that person to give you the copy that came with the camera, That being said the program, to me, would not be worth the effort.

err... since when can you download the canon software freely? They also provide the updates for DPP, but you need the original disc to install the base version. Though, I've never looked into the possibility the "update" is easily circumvented.

I'm one of those anal people that saves the box and everything in it and I provide this with the camera to anyone I sell it to later on. I wish more people would do that.

Anyway, as someone else suggested, I highly recommend Lightroom. It's worth the cost. You can't edit videos in Lightroom though. For now, I just take the cheap and easy way out for videos and use the free Moviemaker that came with Windows 7. You can't do much in that but for now it's all I really need. I mainly care about still photos and Lightroom is awesome for that.

Another vote for Adobe Lightroom here. That saved me a goodly amount of switching back and forth as I had to evaluate a new lens on a Panasonic GF2. Between the horror that is Silkypix and the less-than-stellar Olympus Master 2 programs, it was going to be a long slow boat with all the RW2 and ORF files my test shoots had generated.

If you think that Panasonic customer service is crabby ... PhotoFunStudio is even more crabby. It is a piece of sh... I hate it. Seems the company has not the money to hire a decent software programmer. Go for another software. Canon´s zoom browser (free) is miles ahead with more and better functions. But one can´t use it with Panasonic. Where the fault is? Choose yourself.